In the 2011-2012 school year, there were 46,571 U.S. students enrolled in degree programs in 14 countries.

Around 68 percent of U.S. students pursue degrees in English-speaking countries. The top destination countries were the U.K. and Canada.

France and Germany were third and fourth, respectively.

Germany, in particular, has attracted many more American students in recent years, like Hunter Bliss.

From 2010 to 2012, the number of American students enrolling in German universities increased by almost 10 percent, says the IIE.

In 2012, there were more than 4,000 American students pursuing undergraduate, master's and doctoral degrees in Germany.

Why do Americans go abroad?

The IIE says American students choose to study in another country for two main reasons.

First, international experience is becoming more important in the modern job market. Second, the cost of higher education has continued to rise in the United States.

Rising tuition costs make education abroad – particularly in countries that charge no tuition – attractive to American students, says the IIE.

What are the costs of studying in Europe?

Many American students choose Germany because of the low cost of education there.

German public universities do not charge tuition fees. And many universities in Germany offer courses in English, too.

Casey Detrow, a New Yorker who is getting a degree in American Studies at Humboldt University, in Berlin, told NPR that she chose to go to school in Berlin because it was free.

She said: "I really cannot even compare that to what I would be getting in the United States. When you are talking free versus $50,000, I feel like there is no contest. I can't justify going back."

Other students have made similar statements.

Michael Ferrante, a college student, told Bloomberg that "it was infinitely cheaper to study in Berlin." Ferrante said he paid $500 for two semesters at Humboldt and Freie Universität in Berlin.

For two semesters at Johns Hopkins, a university in the United States, he spent roughly $27,000 dollars with financial assistance.

Why does Germany continue to give free education to foreign students?

Jeffrey Peck, the Dean of the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences at Baruch College, City University of New York, told the BBC about some of the differences between Germany and the United States.

"College education in the US is seen as a privilege and expected to cost money and in Germany it is seen as an extension of a free high school education where one expects it to be provided," he said.

The German government has been eager to encourage students to come to Germany for another reason.

Like many countries in Western Europe, Germany has a demographic problem. In other words, the population is becoming older, and fewer young people are entering college and the job market.

Aminah Sheikh, an American neuroscience graduate student from University of Maryland, College Park, was a fellow at the JGU Medical Center in Mainz, Germany in Summer 2014. (Photo courtesy of Aminah Sheikh)